THE Supreme Court on Friday stayed the promotion of 68 Gujarat lower judicial officers, including Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma who had convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case. A bench comprising Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar said the promotion of the judicial officers was in violation of the Gujarat State Judicial Service Rules 2005, amended in 2011, which states that promotions must be made on principle of merit-cum-seniority and on passing a suitability test. “We are more than satisfied that the impugned list issued by the High Court and the subsequent order issued by the State Government granting promotion to district judges are illegal and contrary to the decision of this court. The same are, therefore, not sustainable,” the bench said.

“We stay the implementation of the promotion list. Respective promotees are sent to their original post which they were holding prior to their promotion,” it said. The top court passed an interim order staying the promotions and directed that the matter be heard by an appropriate bench as Justice Shah is retiring on May 15.

The top court was hearing a plea of senior civil judge cadre officers, Ravikumar Maheta and Sachin Prataprai Mehta, challenging the selection of the 68 judicial officers to the higher cadre of district judges. Varma, the CJM of Surat, is one of the 68 officers of the district lower judiciary whose promotion has also been challenged by Maheta and Mehta, presently working as undersecretary in the legal department of the Gujarat Government and the assistant director at the State legal services authority. The top court, which had issued notices to the State Government and the Registrar General of the Gujarat High Court on April 13 on the plea of the two judicial officers, was very critical of the decision and the order passed on April 18 to promote the 68 officers despite knowing the pendency of the case before it.